Camp Trinity 4, The Imperial Throne
In the fourth book of the Camp Trinity series, the gang heads into a magic world called Zeldor where fairies and elves are quite real and not all as nice as stories would lead one to believe. They have to try to convince the king's armies to join the camp and fight against Tartarus as the threat of total destruction gets closer and closer to becoming a reality, but are instead sent off to hunt down the thief of their sacred throne, someone the demigods know all too well. Estimated age range: 12+ will probably be okay. The swearing worsens slightly and the violence becomes more descriptive and bloody. Sexual content remains with couples merely kissing and nothing explicit included. Summary We open with Libby's point of view as she returns home from school to tell her father and stepmother, that she is a demigod and is the daughter of Minerva. Her stepmother, Taya, refuses to believe her and she and Mr. Rogers argue over how Taya isn't a good mother figure for Libby, and Taya leaves. Mr. Rogers believes Libby as she explains the whole situation and the quests and wars. He doesn't want her to go to the war, but Libby argues that she is growing up and needs to do what is right. Mr. Rogers reluctantly agrees and then an owl arrives with a note from Autumn telling her that Opal is coming to get her and they need her help at camp. Libby says goodbye to her father and then Opal arrives to take her to camp. Autumn and Heather meet Libby when she arrives and Autumn is awful to Libby, then reveals it is actually a clone she designed that makes everybody miserable so they can take their anger out on it. She then tells Libby that the emergency is actually just that they have another dance and they don't have dresses, and they need Libby to help design the dresses for them. Libby happily goes to work. We flash back in Heather's point of view to a few months prior when she first started high school. She meets Tom Brewer and they become friends when he helps defend her against a particularly arrogant boy at lunch who hits on her. She has a dream of Tartarus and the war. Later, she hangs out with her mortal friends, Marissa, Cassidy and Louise, and tells them that she is a demigod. They don't believe her until she shows them her powers and she makes them promise not to tell anyone, but they seem like they think she is a little crazy. Heather and Autumn hang out at the mall and then sneak off to camp because Heather doesn't want to tell her parents about the war. Presently, they are getting ready for the dance and Libby has made them all dresses and made Heather a nice top to wear because she wouldn't wear a dress. They go to the dance and Heather sees Hal and runs to hug him even though they aren't actually a couple. They dance together and later Heather finds out that Autumn and Ray have been dating for the past six months and is upset that Autumn didn't tell her. She leaves and goes back to the Zeus cabin, where she hasn't lived in almost two years, and she has a vision of when she was born and Zeus let Heather's mom pick her name. He had told her about the war, then wiped her memory of it and of him being a god. Heather's adoptive father/stepfather comes in with her two year old sister and the parents agree to try and be together again. Heather sees brief moments in her childhood, times Zeus was watching out for her and when she was little and playing with her toys, when she got a skateboard, and when she fought the Minotaur in the first book. She wakes up in the Zeus cabin and is angry with her father for never helping or being there, but he shows her a secret bunker in the basement of the cabin that requires a fingerprint scan of a Zeus child to open. She goes down and finds weapons to help with the camp's shortage as well as training dummies, targets and other helpful objects. She finds a note in the fireplace that tells her that they need to go into a world called Zeldor inside of a tree in the greenhouse in order to gain allies in the war against Tartarus. He explains that she, Autumn, Libby, Andy and Troy will need to work together. In Autumn's chapter, she is at school and gets a C on her science report card because she had two late assignments and finds the class boring, and her teacher doesn't like her. She is in class when Julia texts her to tell her the camp is having a dance and she is going with Jackson and that Autumn should invite Heather. Autumn does, and at the dance, she follows Heather into the Zeus cabin with an invisibility spell, but goes back to their cabin to give her some space. Ray suggested Autumn talk to Heather, so when Heather comes back to their cabin, Autumn apologizes for not telling her and Heather apologizes for getting mad, and then they go to bed. The next day, Autumn wakes at five and makes breakfast for the camp with the staff. At seven, breakfast was ready and she planned to go back to sleep, but then the alarms go off and she wakes up and Heather tells her and Libby about the quest, which Autumn already knows about. Autumn then brings them outside to show them the breakfast she made. Mr. Crowe gets angry with Autumn for taking the loudspeaker to announce to the camp that breakfast is out, a feast bigger than usual, and then he eats some donuts and tells her to go have breakfast. Autumn sits by herself, as she is the only one at the Bast table, and then Bast appears to give her advice and tell her that friends fight but can get over it. Later, Heather, Autumn and Libby go to the office and tell Mr. Crowe what they are planning to do. Andy interrupts to be a narrator for a moment and tells the reader that there will be occasional "Andy Interruptions" because Heather wouldn't let him write his part of the story, so he's joining in Autumn's. They make a cake for Heather, because her birthday is the next day, but they have a quest to go on. Libby and Troy go to the greenhouse to find the tree. The two are still dating but seem awkward. They find the tree with bone branches and fairy wing leaves, and it has a five inch tall door in the base. Troy makes a dead flower turn into a rose and he gives it to Libby and tells her she is beautiful. The group then goes to lunch and then Autumn and Andy go to the beach to find the pearl that will let them shrink to go into the tree. Heather is writing songs in her notebook when Andy and Autumn are going to find the pearl. Andy comments on how the song isn't very good, as it is sad, and Heather is embarrassed and annoyed. They realize they don't know each other very well even though Autumn is close to both of them and Andy knows a lot about her from Autumn, telling her a bit about himself before Autumn comes back from getting into her bathing suit. Autumn and Andy get the pearl, as Autumn is able to breathe underwater because of the nymphs, and then Autumn and Andy are nearly sucked into a chasm, but are able to escape and get back up to the surface. Tartarus has been released from the pit and is in the mortal world, meaning it is only a matter of time until the war starts. They pack for the trip and go to the greenhouse. Libby uses her ability to disguise and manipulate fashion to change the girls' appearances so Tartarus's forces won't recognize them. Heather unlocks the door with her skeleton key from her charm bracelet. Then, they shrink themselves down and realize Ray and Hal followed them into the greenhouse. They go through the portal and Tartarus tries to get in Heather's head, but she tells him to get lost and they go through. Heather is angry that Ray and Hal followed them and the others don't know why she is overreacting. Libby and Autumn tell Hal that Heather is just worried about him getting hurt and needs time, but Heather ignores them. They are stopped by guards in samurai armor who work for Tartarus and they attempt to kill the kids, but the seven of them defeat the soldiers and take their map of Zeldor to go to the palace. They get to the palace and meet with the king and queen, Jacob and Eliza, who accuse them of stealing the crystal throne, a sacred relic, and they reveal they are aligned with Tartarus. The demigods offer to get the throne back and in exchange, the people of Zeldor fight for them instead of Tartarus. If they fail, the king says they will be executed. The group goes to find the throne and Dainë Brewer, also disguised, is there and stole the throne. The girls go to fight her and Andy interrupts to say that they checked out the town and Andy got a free pair of magic goggles that create items from magic from a blacksmith. Autumn tells him to let her do her narration and the fight continues. They tie up Dainë and then bring her back to the palace as a prisoner. Queen Eliza, impressed with the girls, gives them each a gift. She gives Heather a cornucopia that shoots a tornado of leaves out when she pushes wind through it. She gives Autumn an elixir of fairy potion that heals anything. She gives Libby a horn that she can use to, once every ten years, summon the gods and if they think she is worthy, they will go to her aid. The tree fairies have joined their side, but as the group is on their way back to the exit, they stop and a scribe of the queen, Lucinda, goes to tell them Dainë escaped. They are annoyed and have to go back to stop her or Jackson, Sally and Julia, who have been taken prisoner, will be killed. Libby starts crying about how worthless she is and Heather tells her to just accept who she is. The demigods go to the Cavern of Truth and the Mistress of Truth washes away their disguises and orders them to tell their truth. She manipulates their powers to attack them until they tell the truth. Ray says he wanted his job at the library because he wanted to meet girls, but he thinks he has the best girl of them all. Autumn says she wishes she was popular and it upsets her that not everybody likes her. Libby says she is jealous of Heather and Autumn being heroes when she isn't. Heather says her parents don't care about her and she thinks they won't care if she dies. Andy confesses he is still in love with Libby. Troy breaks up with Libby and says he doesn't feel "it". Hal says he was at the dance with Nicki Bradley, his girlfriend. Heather gets angry at Hal for dancing with her and not telling her he had a girlfriend or anything then she destroys the rocks blocking the doorway to the cave and she leaves. Heather goes to the lake and and opens the massive lock into the other room, using the key from the Cavern of Truth to open it. She is almost out of oxygen and goes up, but is chained down and almost drowns. She remembers Hal giving her a birthday present the night before, a bracelet she likes, and they almost kiss because they still like each other. Then Libby freezes time and Autumn saves Heather from drowning. She tells them the door is down there and then returns to the door, going through and entering a room that has no water in it, so she can breathe. Dainë is there and she talks to Heather, revealing that Tom is her brother and that she doesn't want to do this stuff. She attempts to kill Heather but doesn't want to because Thanatos, her father, is controlling her. Libby shoots Dainë with Heather's bow and arrows, and kills her. Heather is upset about this because she knows that Dainë wasn't actually evil. Then Autumn gets Dainë's head and brings her to the king and queen. Jackson, Sally and Julia are freed and the group returns to camp with a solid alliance. Autumn decides to redo the cabin and then Ray, who is helping, breaks up with Autumn. Autumn talks to Poseidon and he tries to make her feel better. Their cabin is fixed and Autumn tells the others of her plan for the dance and Heather, Libby and Autumn talk to Mr. Crowe, who tells her that they don't have much time until Tartarus attacks. He asks Libby to join Heather and Autumn in leading the war. They go to the dance and Libby and Andy talk. Heather gets mad at Ray for dumping Autumn so rudely so he could go out with Nicole, and she then sees Hal and Nicki arguing because Hal keeps a picture of Heather in his room and he still likes her. Nicki calls Heather bad names and Hal breaks up with her, and he notices Heather is there. Heather tells him that they can't be together, and he says that's okay but he won't go out with anyone else. The group goes to a council meeting including Mr. Crowe, Heather, Autumn, Libby, Sally, Julia, Emily, Hal, Ray, Jackson, Andy, Troy and Brandon. They argue about how to go about the war and Heather decides to leave and she and Autumn are no longer friends. Narrated by Heather Green (Jo Grayson) Autumn Stone (Eryn Kosinski) Libby Rogers (Jo Grayson and Eryn Kosinski) Trivia * This book is the first to be considered a novel at 47,868 words. * This book includes travelling to a world of elves, fairies and dwarves.